My interest in medicine began in the fifth grade. My mother had a master’s degree in public health and I would read over her shoulder, fascinated by her anatomy books. It was then that I decided I wanted to be a surgeon. A few years later, I learned about an early acceptance program offered by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. I was accepted into the program in my senior year of high school and entered medical school after two years of college. I initially pursued neurosurgery, but a friend recommended urology. I liked the people in the field and was fascinated by the interaction of hormones and cancer within the prostate. I was fortunate to be allowed to conduct independent research in the department’s famous prostate cancer research laboratories and to have a world-renowned surgeon as my mentor, and so the course of my career as a surgeon in prostate cancer care and research was set.